Google’s two-day conference for developers kicked off with a keynote address focused heavily on the company’s efforts to spread its Android operating system beyond smartphones.

The company featured new software for watches, cars and homes. The company also unveiled an initiative, called Android One, to get cheaper smartphones into the hands of more people in developing countries.

Thanks for stopping by the live blog. Joanna Stern and Nathan Olivarez-Giles from the Personal Technology team will be at the Moscone center and will bring you real-time analysis of the keynote. Check back in with us closer to noon ET.

I’m hoping we get a good sense of Google’s ambitions for connecting the home.

So many balls in the air with Nest opening up to developers and sharing user info with its new parent, Google. There are so many showdowns in tech, but Google going head to head with Apple to be the OS of your life is compelling.

Are you “Apple” or “Android” takes on a lot more meaning when you aren’t just deciding on the phone in your pocket, but the systems governing a lot of your life at home, in the car, on your wrist, etc.

As a one-time heavy gamer (I have kids now), I am intrigued by the possibilities of Android TV as a gaming platform. Mobile phones are powerful enough to maybe replace a dedicated hand-held, but unseat a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One? I am not so sure casual gamers will want to leap to taking over the TV. To me, it comes down to what the games are. A Civilization might be such a bridge.

I am wondering if we will hear anything at all about Chrome OS. Android might be the focus and the platform that starts to power so many more devices but Chrome OS has emerged a solid computing operating system.

That Hangout check in (using what looked like Google Earth, of course), was pretty cool. It’s part of I/O Extended, where people around the world are having their own conferences. Google encouraged people to share their gathering, and that it might feature some during the conference.

Pichai announces the new L Developer Preview of Android — not calling it Lollipop or Lemonheads –yet just “L.” He said Android L will introduce a fresh, new, bold look.

Matias Duarte, who heads up Android software design, took the stage to talk more about how Android L will look. He says Google challenged itself to create “one consistent vision for mobile, desktop and beyond” – “something simple and intuitive.”

Duarte is hinting at something here — he said Google wondered what the company could do with a touch screen material that responded to touch. Google is showing a avideo of Android L: it’s bright and colorful, with lots of rich blues and reds. Google is sticking with its flat design language here. Duarte says the inspiration for Android L comes from paper and ink.

Duarte said Android L will make it easier for developers to decide on one design that can carry across tabelts, phones and laptops — any device. He also mentioned that Android L has been developed by the Android team in concert with other parts of Google, such as Chrome — this is a direct result of Pichai being in charge.

He runs Chrome, he runs Android and now he’s getting everyone to play nice and build things together. This is a big change.

Polymer, a UI design library for Android that Google introduced at I/O last year, was made to make it easier for developers make consistently styled apps for Android phones and tablets. It will be expanded to include design guidelines for the Web.

From what we are seeing, this next version of Android looks incredibly clean and polished. Of course, it’s up to Google to work with the phone, tablet and laptop makers to make sure it stays that way and doesn’t get ruined with clutter and too many tweaks.

The “material support” in L sounds like it won’t actually introduce touchscreens that physically respond to you, but rather design elements that developers can use that mimic physical elements and objects. Android will get new ripple effects and “elevations” that make it look like buttons on screen are floating.

Dave Burke, an Android design director, is on stage. He says Google is introducing 5,000 new APIs today. He is showing off Android L’s new phone dialer and contacts app, and it looks great. Minimal design with bright colors. The ripples aren’t quite new — Android has had these embellishments for some time. But they look better.

Notifications on Android L will be improved too, Burke said. He is showing off notifications that pop up at you when you touch them. When you swipe down on your lock-screen notifications, you’ll be able to scroll through all of your notifications. Burke said this is possible because Google “merged” the notification shade and the lock screen.

This will let you open your phone without a pattern lock or passcode by recognizing when you’re in a location you’ve designated as safe — say the home or office.

Your Android L phone will be able to recognize when devices you own and wear are nearby. For example, if you’re wearing your Android Wear watch, your phone will recognize this and let you unlock your phone with a swipe up rather than a passcode, since your phone knows that you wear your watch.

We’re seeing a new version of Chrome for Android with a grayed out URL bar up top, and a gray menu bar on the bottom. The back, home and menu buttons on Android L are new – they’re now a triangle (instead of a back arrow), a circle (instead of an icon that looks like a little house) and a square (instead of the old menu button that was a square with three lines in it).

She’s now demoing the new view that Chrome users see when looking at all of their Chrome tabs. No longer are Web pages floating in Chrome, in a black screen. Instead, they’re now floating as tiles over the top of your home screen, alongside other Android apps you have open in the background.

Links on the Web can now open up Android apps. Shah shows a demo where she searches for a restaurant and an Open Table link opens up the Open Table app, rather than its mobile site, since the app is already installed on the demo device. Searching in Chrome’s search bar will not only suggest Web pages you’ve searched for, but also apps you’ve recently used.

That link-app demonstration was really interesting. Rolfe Winkler wrote about this effort, and why “deep linking” is so important to Google. The company owns the Web, but not apps, and it needs to make up for that if it wants to stay relevant in terms of search (and, thusly, ads).

Burke says a new runtime called ART has been written from the ground up for devices that run on ARM, x86 and MIPS chipsets. What this means for consumers: Android L should run and behave on different Android devices more consistently and smoothly. Google really gets into the weeds and speaks to developers in its keynotes.

Burke says that Google worked with graphics chip makers such as Nvidia to improve graphics rendering on smartphones and tablets.

He’s now showing a game demo from developer Epic Games that looks near console quality — lots of lighting details and impressive 3D graphics. Great refelction effects as well. Burke said new phones and tablets in the fall, running Android L, will offer graphics on par with PC gaming.

About a dozen security guards rushed over to the woman and are asking her to leave. She said her piece and walked off, surrounded by securty. The developers pretty much ignored her. Burke talked on amid all of this, promising better battery life and better graphics for Android L. “This is our biggest release to date.”

The L Developer Preview will be available for download at developer.android.com tomorrow morning.

“We have a new design with L, tons of new features and a host of performance improvements,” he said. “We aren’t building a vertical integrated product. What we’re doing is building an open platform, at scale, with hundreds of hardware partners.”

Pichai has moved on to talk about security. He says Google takes it seriously and is adding new malware protections to Android through Google Play services, and new “factory reset protection” that will let people reset lost or stolen phones remotely.

In L, Google is introducing “foundational principles” that will inform the development of Android going forward — Chrome as well.

Pichai says Android will be contextually aware, voice enabled, and seamlessly linked to wearables and other connected screens like your car. He said the idea is that your car, watch, home, TV, laptop, phone and tablet will all be in sync and offer you the information you need at the time and place you are at.

David Singleton, an Android Engineering Director, is on stage talking Android Wear. He says that style is important when it comes to wearables, and because of that, Android will support both square and circular screens.

Since your watch will be voice activated, it will offer answers to your questions. He says your Android Wear watch will be “your key to a multiscreen world.”

Google is showing a demo of the LG G Watch. It has an always-on screen. That sounds bothersome — who wants their phone glowing in the movie theater? Any time your Android phone gets a notification, it’ll be sent to your Android Wear watch — which means buzzing, and possibly an audio alert too.

Android Wear will use location tracking to know when you are at home or at work, and it will do this by staying in sync with your phone. What’s unclear is whether or not both your phone and watch will track your location, or if the watch uses the phone’s location tracking abilities.

First tech demo fail of the day. Jeff, a Google engineer, tries to add a “peanut butter jar” to his to-do list using a voice command. But Android’s voice-recognition software doesn’t recognize his request.

You got your wish, Nathan, disabling the features if you want to take a break from real-time looked like it was a swipe away. Kudos to Google breaking out a huge chunk of time to try and show how a synced watch and phone would work in a normal day of life. You may not be impressed with any of this, but at least Google is trying to answer the usual question that comes with wearables: Why?

Jeff asks his LG G Watch to play music and it plays Chromeo, with album art popping up over a tile with the song’s title and a play-pause icon. So far, the Android Wear user interface is simple and attractive. Will hardware partners skin this the way they do Android on phones? Android Wear will be able to also track your heart rate and display your boarding pass.

The interface looks quite clean and similar to Google Now. But my worry is that there is still a lot of action that is happening on the screen. My big “want” with these wearables is info that can be taken in at a glance and doesn’t require too many taps or swipes.

Singleton says Android Wear apps should offer important information at a glance and, so far, the stuff he’s showing seems to have that “glanceability” nailed. That said, if you pick up an Android Wear watch, you’ll be swiping your wrist a lot. Want to pull up a new app? You’ll swipe to it. Want to dismiss a notification? That’s a swipe too.

Singleton said that a full Android Wear software developer kit (SDK) will be made available to developers so they can get started on building their own apps. He’s now demoing an Eat 24 app that let him swipe to the pizza place he wanted to order from, then swipe to decide what he wants to order, and then tap (finally something that isn’t a swipe) to pay.

Singleton said the Samsung Gear Live and LG G Watch — two Android Wear wearables — will go on pre-order later today on Google Play.The Motorola Android Wear watch won’t go on sale until later this summer.

Google is moving on to Android in the car. Patrick Brady is on stage talking about Android in your dashboard. He says Google wants to stamp out the number of people who use their phones while driving. “There’s got to be a better way,” he says, introducing Android Auto.

Android Auto will focus on navigation, communications (phone calls) and music. Android Auto will be completely voice enabled. And it’ll be contextually aware.

Andy Brenner, an Android Auto product manger, is sitting stage left in mock car cockpit — two seats and a dash.

Android Auto, on a display built into the dashboard, connects to your phone to bring up Google Now cards with navigation and music suggestions. Android Auto looks a lot like Android Wear, which looks a lot like Google Now on your phone. This isn’t a mistake — this is the consistent design Android design chief Matias Duarte has been preaching for years.

Turn-by-turn navigation, traffic and other Google Maps features show up in Android Auto because your phone powers the software. Brady says that the more powerful your phone is, the more capable Android Auto will be.

I have a minivan with maps built into the dashboard. I am so tired of getting pitches to upgrade the software for $150. That’s insane in a world of Google and Apple maps. This demo is speaking to my soul.

Great question. That’s the one I alluded to earlier when I said that being “an Apple” or “an Android” is such a bigger question now. It’s more than just the phone in your pocket. It really is becoming a question of which ecosystem you want to be a very close part of your life.

MLB At Bat and Pandora have already made Android Auto apps that will be demoed later on the show floor.

“With just a few lines of code,” Brady says, developers will be able to make apps that work on Android Phones — and Android Wear watches work in cars, too. He says the first Android Auto compatible cars will roll off the lot later this year.

“Who played Katniss in ‘The Hunger Games?’ ” Burke asks. Search results deliver the answer: Jennifer Lawrence, with her photo and name on a Google Now card. Below that are related searches (what other shows and movies she’s been in) and YouTube clips.

So far, the phone has acted as the remote for Android TV. But now, Burke is controlling Android TV with his LG G watch.

Three out of four Android users play games, Burke said. And Android TV will let you play games on your TV. He’s playing a game called Leo’s Fortune with a black game controller (not sure who makes the controller). Burke says Android TV will support multiplayer games too — he plays “NBA Jam” on his TV, using a controller, against a friend who is playing on a tablet.

The demo showed mirroring from the device to the TV. You also will be able to ask Google Now “what’s on my Chromecast” when it is in ambient mode, and a Google Now card will show you the photo and a description of what the photo is. Chandra said these features will come later this year in Android L.

Pichai said that almost all Chromebook users have their phones on them, so Android L will introduce features that connect your phone to your laptop. If your Android L phone is near your Chromebook, your Chromebook will recognize it and unlock your laptop and automatically log you in.

This seems great — as long as your Chromebook and phone don’t get stolen together.

Also, Google Now notifications will show up on Chromebooks. And, Android apps too. “We’re in the early days,” Pichai said of Android apps running on Chromebooks. He is showing a demo of Evernote’s Android app running on a Chromebook. It looks a lot like a tablet app, but you can of course control it with a mouse and keyboard.

With the Android L release, Pichai says Google will introduce “full data isolation and security” so you can have your work and personal apps and files on one device. This, he says, will please IT guys and consumers. No modification of existing apps will be needed to pull this off, Pichai says.

Drive data will now be encrypted in transit and “at rest on our servers,” which will make Drive ideal for the enterprise, he says. And this is big: Pichai says Drive will now be $10 a month per user for unlimited storage. The cloud-storage gauntlet has been thrown down.

Pichai showed a video with six middle-school girls who built an app called Hello Navi that uses GPS and Google voice features to help a blind student get from class to class. The girls, and the student they built the app for, are in the audience today.

I thought it was a great end and was starting to stretch, but we are entering hour three and the keynote marches on. It has moved on to the Google Cloud Platform. So not only is it long, but it is getting deeper into the weeds. Still shorter than an American League baseball game.

The session was interrupted by another protester who said some angry things. We won’t repeat them here. It is surprising not only that there was another protester that was able to shout for as long as he did — wasn’t security on alert after the first person? — but that this person knew there would be an opportunity this late in the keynote.

The keynote is now covering cloud-based debugging of code. Like I said during Apple’s WWDC when it introduced a new programming language, this is a developers conference after all. We gadget people are crashing their party.

Savvy move or not? If you are going to talk about cloud analytics and sentiment, do it around the World Cup. Everyone loves the World Cup. Except you just reminded people that they are missing the World Cup today. Hmmm.

Going through app development and testing. To be clear, Apple talked about this stuff too during WWDC. It’s not that Google is bogging down on 1s and 0s, it’s that they spent a LOT of time on showing how consumer features for Wear, TV and Auto work. They were more thorough walk-throughs than you usually see during a broad-based keynote.

There is stuff going on people will find interesting. Talking about Google Fit now, including unified data for more comprehensive apps. The problem today is that so much fitness data is siloed in different apps. Google Fit is about getting it all under one roof.

As part of that app testing, Google is buying Appurify, a company that makes emulation software that let’s developers test how their apps will work on a wide range of devices. It lets developers simulate the performance of different mobile networks.

Even though Google is buying Appurify, it will still offer iOS and Android emulation. Google is also rolling out a developer preview of Google Fit, so developers can make apps that’ll take data from multiple sources (fitness bands, bike computers, smart scales) that work with Android apps.

Google Play Games, meanwhile, has signed up more than 100 million new gamers in the last six months. It’s now adding a “game profile” that tracks what games you’ve played, stores save games and records achievements.

And now: the giveaways. Sundar said that all attendees will be given either the LG G Watch or the Samsung Gear Live smartwatches. (Also, everyone gets a piece of cardboard — what did Googlers do with that cardboard in their 20% time?)